Doris Castle facts for kids
Doris Jean Castle (1942–1998) was a brave civil rights activist. She worked hard to help African Americans in New Orleans get equal rights. Doris was part of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and worked alongside her sister, Oretha Castle Haley. She was one of the youngest Freedom Riders from New Orleans, starting her fight for civil rights when she was just seventeen years old.
About Doris Castle
Doris Castle was born on May 25, 1942, in Oakland, Tennessee. Her family had a history of farming. Some of her relatives owned land, while others were sharecroppers, meaning they farmed land owned by someone else and shared the crops. Doris remembered her grandmother telling her, "Don't ever give up when you know you are right."
Her family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1947. Her father, John Castle, worked as a longshoreman, loading and unloading ships. Her mother, Virgie Castle, was a barmaid at Leah and Dooky Chase restaurants. Her parents taught Doris and her sister to be very independent. Doris and Oretha grew up learning that they had to fight for what they wanted. They went to public schools in the Ninth Ward area of New Orleans.
Doris graduated from Joseph S. Clark High School. Later, she attended Southern University at New Orleans but did not finish her degree. She followed her sister's example and joined CORE. She helped many civil rights groups across the city. Doris and Oretha were part of a new generation of activist leaders in New Orleans. Doris saw herself as someone who helped make things happen in the Black community, rather than a main leader.
She and her sister helped to end segregation on New Orleans public buses. They also worked to register Black citizens to vote. They joined boycotts around the city to push for equal job opportunities for Black people. During one protest, they were fighting to desegregate the New Orleans City Hall cafeteria. Police removed Doris from the building while she was still sitting in a cafeteria chair. Doris was one of three people who successfully sued to desegregate the City Hall cafeteria.
Many women activists in Louisiana did not get much credit for their actions during the civil rights movement. However, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Doris worked as a fundraiser for the National Welfare Rights Organization. She then worked for different service groups in New Orleans. These included programs under Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, the Urban League, and Odyssey House.
Doris once said that if she hadn't been part of the civil rights movement, her life might have been very different. She felt that her experiences in the movement made her a more valuable person to herself.
Doris Castle passed away on April 16, 1998, from cancer.
What was CORE?
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was an important African American civil rights organization. It helped Black Americans during the civil rights movement. CORE organized sit-ins, where people would sit in segregated places like cafeterias, theaters, and restaurants to protest. They also worked on desegregation efforts to end separation based on race. CORE also encouraged women leaders to take action in rural Louisiana.
After Doris graduated from high school, her parents gave her a trip to Chicago. While she was there, she learned her sister had been arrested in New Orleans for carrying a protest sign. After this, Doris helped start the first CORE chapter in New Orleans. She took part in sit-ins both locally and across the country. She also helped raise money for the national CORE organization.
Many women in CORE, including Doris, faced physical abuse from white men during sit-ins, protests, and even in jail. Despite this, these women fought even harder for racial justice.
The Castle family was very involved with CORE in New Orleans. Their home in the Treme-Laffite neighborhood became a meeting place. Activists would gather there to plan strategies and sometimes stay overnight. Their house became known as "the Freedom House."
Between 1960 and 1961, the New Orleans CORE chapter faced some challenges. Many members went back to school or started working for other groups like the War on Poverty organizations.
Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode buses across state lines into the Southern United States. They did this to protest segregation on public transportation. Doris rode a Freedom Riders bus from Montgomery, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi, on May 24, 1961. She was arrested the very next day because of her involvement. She spent her nineteenth birthday in Parchman Penitentiary, a prison.
Doris Castle once spoke about how scared they all were the night before they rode the freedom bus. She said, "I know we were all afraid that night we got on the train at Union Station and left here and went to Montgomery."
